anderson



'UNiTnp sTATEs PATENT oFFIoE.

B. Gi ANDERSON, OF' GHILLICOTHE, OHIO.

CANAL-BRID GE.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 15,878, dated October 14, 1856.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, B. Gr. ANoEnsoN, of Chillicothe, in the county of Ross and State ofOhio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Canal-Bridges; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specilication, in whichl Figure l isa longitudinal vertical section of my improvement, the plane of section being through the center. Fig. 2, is a plan or top view of ditto.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the two figures.

My invention consists in having the bridge made of three parts, one part of which forms one half of the bridge and consequently extends halfway across t-he canal; the ot-her half of the bridge is divided longitudinally into two parts which are connected by joints to the stationary part. The two parts last mentioned, rest upon suppo-rts which have rollers in their lower ends, said rollers working upon curved ways at the bottom of the canal. By this improvement, the jointed parts of the bridge may be opened or turned a around when necessary so as to allow boats to pass through and also closed so as to form an entire bridge as will be presently shown and described.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand and construct my invent-ion, I will proceed to describe it.

A, represents a canal and B, represents one half of my improved bridge which is built permanently one half way across the canal. The other half of the bridge is formed of two parts C, C, which rest upon supports D, D, said supports having rollers a, at their lower ends which rollers rest or work upon curved ways E, placed on the bottom of the canal.

The two parts C, C, of the bridge are connected at one end by joints F, to the end of the permanent part B, said joints being formed of curved bars b, having eyes at their outer ends through whichv vert-ical bars c, pass, said bars being attached to the part B, of the bridge, and to a sill d, at the bottom of the canal. The railing G, at the sides of the bridge, at the junction of the parts B, C, C, are also connected by joints H.

The ends of the two partsC, C, which adjoin the side of the canal have catches or fastenings e, e, upon them. These catches or fastenings secure the two parts C, C, together and a complete or entire bridge is formed across the canal.

By loosening the catches or fastenings e, e,

`the two parts C, C, of the bridge may be turned around as shown in red, Fig. 2, and bo-ats are allowed to pass through.

The above bridge will be of great advantage in cases where the sides of a canal are low, as high abutments are now required to be built in order to allow boats to pass underneath the bridges. In my improvement, the bridge may be on a level with the surface of the ground at the sides of the canal.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

Constructing the bridge of three parts B, C, C, the parts C, C being connected by joints F, to the part B, and having their supports D, provided with rollers a which BALAAM G. ANDERSON.

Witnesses:

SYLVESTER BACON, l JONATHAN SUTTON. 

